De-Victimizing Your Health!
Hello, my friends! I hope you are treating life well and learning from every moment of it! Today, I want to share one of my recent observations: Self-victimization. Self-victimization is our national pastime, and we have all indulged in it to one extent or another. We all know of somebody who is a notorious victim, someone who will find the glass half empty no matter what happens to them–be it good or bad. I will choose not to address this class of people today.
Rather, I would like to speak to those of you who normally do not engage in “victim language” in most areas of your life, such as work, parenting, relationships, and so forth. In other words, if you are confidant in most areas of your life but have not yet mastered one of the most intimate areas of your life, namely your health and fitness, I am talking to you. If you have mastered this area of your life, please share this post with one of your friends or family members who has not.
Chances are good that you do not think of yourself as a victim, and as it pertains to 90% of your life, you are probably right! But I am here to tell you that you have made yourself out to be a victim as it pertains to your health and fitness. The proof is your current lifestyle and the results that you are currently getting. This does not make you a bad person, it rather points to the fact that you have allowed yourself to be victimized. Make no mistake; we ALL do it in certain areas of our lives. My goal is to help you elevate your awareness so that you can de-victimize and master your health!
I have had many clients over the years that are trapped in various forms of victimhood, and, ironically, they don’t even know it. The reason that they don’t know it is because many forms of victimhood are unrecognizable to the average person. The following list is various forms of victimhood that will undeniably derail your health and fitness if you don’t become aware of them and take action.
The “I have no time” Victim
As far as volume, no other category claims more victims than this one. I can’t tell you how many well-intentioned people have told me, “Griff, I just don’t have time to exercise and prepare healthy nutrition,” or “I just ran out of time and did not have any left for exercise.”
Whether you know it or not, this is victim language in its purest sense. When we continually reinforce these sayings, we convince both our conscious and subconscious mind that we truly do not have time. As a result, we ALWAYS find that our hourglass is empty.
The Workaholic Victim
One of the most recent victim statements that I heard went a little like this: “I really want to start exercising more, but work has me by the throat right now.” In a similar vein, I have also heard this: “I don’t have time to eat nutritiously because I am going from meeting to meeting, and I just don’t have the time to prepare healthy food!”
These excuses all sound reasonable, justifiable, and believable, don’t they? But make no mistake; this form of workaholic victimhood will CRUSH your ambitions to obtain health and fitness because it will always come second. More than any other category, it is easy and “accurate” to blame work for your lack of self-care.
The Stress Victim
The stress/depressed/anxiety victim is always claiming that they cannot workout or eat healthy because they are stressed out to the max. They will put on parade all of the reasons why they are stressed and elaborate on the reasons why they have “no more energy” to exercise. Paradoxically, it is exercise and healthy nutrition that will alleviate to a large extent these same ailments.
The “I Put Myself Last Victim”
These victims are generally very caring people who take care of everybody except themselves. They are saintly in nature but devilish in their explanations as to why they cannot exercise. They are always helping others, solving problems, and putting themselves last: A sure state of ironic victimhood because darn it, “there is no more time left for me!”
Your Solution
Chances are good that one of these basic forms of victimhood applies strongly to you. If this is the case, you must realize that all of these states of victimhood stem from a state of REACTIVITY. In short, you are reacting to your environment and empowering it. In the mean time, you are disempowering yourself and shortchanging your health.
The solution is actually quite simple. You must turn your reactivity into proactivity! This starts with awareness. Once you are aware that you are turning yourself into a victim, you can proactively re-define your priorities and set up a master plan (goals) to help you. Being proactive simply means that YOU dictate what your life is going to look like rather than reacting to external circumstances and accepting them as “the way that it is.”
You are more powerful than you will ever know, my friend, so take that knowledge and proactively de-victimize your life!
Life is good!